Open Enrollment 2027: 10 Money Checks Before You Click ‘Enroll’

Your 2027 employer benefits window is probably open right now — most US open enrollments run from mid-October to mid-November, and whatever you click locks in for the whole of 2027. This is not a forms exercise: one skipped checkbox can erase a year of tax-free savings, and one stale election can leave you under-covered after the biggest year of your life. Here are the ten checks that matter, in the order to do them — with the confirmed 2027 numbers.

1. The trap: doing nothing resets your FSA and HSA to $0

This is the single most expensive mistake of open enrollment. Your medical, dental, vision and life insurance elections usually roll over if you do nothing — but your payroll contribution elections to flexible spending accounts (FSAs) and health savings accounts (HSAs) do not. They reset to $0 on 1 January unless you actively re-elect them. Georgetown, Rochester, Purdue and UToledo have all said the same thing about their 2027 windows this month: no action means no FSA or HSA contributions for the year.

Two nuances people miss: your HSA balance is always yours and rolls over forever — it is only the payroll contribution election that resets. And some employers add a wrinkle: you may need to actively re-elect the HSA even at $0 to keep receiving the employer’s HSA contribution.

2. Start with what changed in your life this year

Open enrollment exists for exactly the life events LifeTurn Money covers. Before touching any number, walk through this list:

• New baby? Add them to your plan (a birth is a qualifying life event with a 30-day window — see our new-parent tax checklist), and consider the dependent-care FSA for 2027 childcare costs.
• Married or divorced? Update your coverage tier and every beneficiary. A divorce decree does not automatically update your plan beneficiaries — an ex-partner can remain the named beneficiary of a life insurance policy or 401(k) years later if you never change it.
• Health changes? A new diagnosis, planned surgery or regular prescriptions can flip the maths between plans (see check 5).
• Child turning 26? They age off your health plan — plan their next step now, not in December.
• New job, second job, or a spouse’s new plan? Overlapping coverage can create HSA eligibility problems (see traps below).

3. The 2027 numbers to enter

These are the IRS-confirmed figures for plan year 2027 — published in May 2026, so they are final and ready to plan around:

Account	2027 limit	What changed
HSA, self-only coverage	$4,500	Up $100 from 2026 (IRS Rev. Proc. 2026-24)
HSA, family coverage	$9,000	Up $250 from 2026 — first time above $9,000
HSA catch-up (age 55+)	+$1,000	Fixed by statute — unchanged
HDHP minimum deductible	$1,750 / $3,500 family	Up from $1,700 / $3,400
HDHP max out-of-pocket	$8,700 / $17,400 family	Up from $8,500 / $17,000

Two more numbers still in play: the health FSA limit was $3,400 for 2026, and the IRS announces the 2027 figure in late October or November — confirm it with your plan rather than guessing (early projections point to around $3,500). And the dependent-care FSA is $7,500 for 2026 after the first increase in 40 years — if childcare is in your 2027 plans, this is the cheapest tax break most families can buy.

4. Finish 2026 before you plan 2027

Your 2026 elections still have weeks of runway — and the deadlines are hard:

• 401(k): the 2026 limit is $24,500 ($32,500 at 50+, $35,750 at 60–63). Check your year-to-date deferrals and raise your contribution for the remaining paychecks if you are short — 401(k) money must go in through payroll by 31 December.
• HSA 2026: contributions for 2026 stay open until 15 April 2027 — the rare deadline that survives the new year. If you left money on the table, you can still fix it from your own account.
• Health FSA 2026: the opposite — use-it-or-lose-it. Up to $680 can carry over if your plan allows it (or your plan may offer a grace period instead — it cannot offer both). Spend the rest before year-end.
• 2027 401(k)/IRA limits: the IRS announces these in late October or November. Do not lock your 2027 contribution percentage on stale numbers — set a reminder to revisit it when the official figures land. And if you are 50+ and earned over $150,000, remember the 2026 Roth catch-up rule may already be shaping where your catch-up dollars must go.

5. Re-run the high-deductible vs PPO maths

The HDHP-plus-HSA combination is often the best deal on paper — triple tax advantage, your money forever, investable balance — but only if the plan is actually HSA-eligible (deductible of at least $1,750 for 2027) and your expected care costs fit. Do the honest arithmetic: (annual premium difference) + (employer HSA seed money) vs (your expected out-of-pocket costs). A PPO wins for years with predictable high costs; the HDHP usually wins for healthy years and as a long-term savings vehicle. If your health picture changed this year (check 2), last year’s answer may be wrong.

6. Tick the cheap boxes everyone skips

Supplemental life insurance, disability insurance, legal cover and identity protection are usually cheapest at group rates — and the one you need is the one you skipped. Two in particular: disability insurance (your income is your biggest asset) and beneficiary designations on every account, which outrank your will. Even if you change nothing else, actively confirm your elections rather than letting them drift.

7. Check the spousal traps before you submit

• If your spouse has an HSA and you hold a general-purpose FSA that covers them, their HSA contributions may be disqualified — a limited-purpose FSA (dental/vision only) is the usual workaround.
• Some employers require an annual spousal coverage attestation — miss it and you may pay a surcharge or lose the coverage.
• Covering a domestic partner can create imputed-income tax you did not expect — check the tax treatment, not just the premium.

For readers in the UK and Canada

The US system above has no direct equivalent abroad — but the annual-review habit travels well.

The traps to avoid

• Assuming elections roll over. Medical plans usually do; FSA and HSA payroll contributions do not. No action = $0.
• Electing an FSA with no spending plan. It is use-it-or-lose-it (beyond the $680 carryover or grace period). Elect what you will actually spend.
• Picking an HDHP that is not HSA-eligible. Not every high-deductible plan meets the IRS thresholds — confirm the $1,750/$3,500 deductible and $8,700/$17,400 out-of-pocket figures before funding an HSA.
• Stale beneficiaries. Marriage, divorce, a new child — any of these makes last year’s designations wrong. Fix them now.
• Locking 2027 401(k) percentages early. The IRS announces 2027 limits in late October or November — revisit your election when they land.